Affiliate Success Checklist

 

 

 1. MAKE SURE THE PRODUCT YOU CHOOSE MATCHES YOU

Once you learn how to promote on the Internet, move on to different products.
Learning the process of marketing will be easier, and more fun, if you are promoting something you know and love.
This is true for two reasons.

1. If you promote something you know about you don’t have to learn BOTH the process of marketing and gain product knowledge at the same time.
2. Being passionate about a product (or subject) means you will know automatically who will make a good customer and what their interests are — because they will be like you!

Here’s a bonus reason for you — it’s easier to stay motivated when you are promoting something you believe in.

2. CHECK IT OUT

The key now is to look for quality.

The quality of the products you promote matters greatly.
Here’s why.
You are going to build a list of buyers of your product (yes, this can be done as an affiliate) and so those customers need to be happy with you AND the product.
If they are happy, they will buy again. And those sales will be the easiest you ever made in your life. Now you are a trusted friend, advising them about how they can benefit from your recommendation.
Ask yourself this question: is the product or service you are promoting something you would bring to your best friend?

• If yes, move ahead.
• If not, you may want to keep looking.

3. TALK TO THE PRODUCT OWNER

You should be able to talk via email to the person who owns the company BEFORE spending your hard earned money and precious time promoting their product.

When you can contact the owner, or his or her staff, and get real help and answers you will have found a company that cares about affiliates.
And that is what you want.
So now you have chosen a product, feel confident about the quality and have had your questions answered by a real person.

4. HOW WELL DO THEY SELL?

Conversion simply means that for every 100 people who visit the site a certain number buy something. It is usually expressed as a percentage like 5% or 15%.
So if 100 people visit the site and 5 of them buy that would be a 5% conversion.
You need to ask how well the product or service you will be promoting ‘converts’.

For most established products you will promote you can expect this number to range from .5% to about 10%. Anything higher or lower and you need to be careful about them telling you the truth.
Sadly, some product owners will misrepresent their conversion by cooking the books or just outright make it up.

5. WHAT IS THE COOKIE DURATION?

Most affiliate programs track using ‘cookies’ that are set on the visitor’s computer.
A cookie is simply a small file that is downloaded to the visitor’s computer. This cookie identifies you as the affiliate so you will be paid the commissions.
That’s one very important cookie!
You need to know two things about this cookie.

1. How long does it last? (Cookies generally expire after X days)
2. Can it be overwritten?

The reason this is important is that it will change how you market.

• For example, if a company has a short cookie duration then you want to focus on ads that make the sale now. Your advertising needs to focus completely on them buying now.
• If they have a longer cookie duration you can use other methods that are more passive and seem less intense and pressured.

For example, with a long-cookie-duration product, you can encourage people to get free information to learn more knowing that your affiliate cookie likely will not expire before a buying decision is made.
You also want to know if the cookie can be overwritten. This is called a “last affiliate” policy.
What that means is that the LAST link clicked will get the sale.
So if someone who first learned about product X from you clicks another person’s affiliate link to buy that person gets the commission, not you.
This is a common practice in affiliate marketing.

6. DO YOU EARN ‘BACKEND’ COMMISSIONS?

“Backend” commissions mean you get paid when someone you refer buys a second product.
This is good if you can get it but it’s less common.

• The merchant will feel that he or she is doing the work for the second sale so they should not have to pay a commission.
• The affiliate will feel that the merchant would never have had that customer if not for them and so they earned the commission.

Both valid points.
Some people will not promote if this is not in place. Others look for a middle ground. You will ultimately have to decide what works best for you.
Some sites even promise “lifetime” commissions where you earn on every sale the customers you send ever make.

7. DO YOU EARN RENEWAL COMMISSIONS?

This is another hotly debated issue that deserves your attention.
While you can’t control many of these things, knowing about them gives you the knowledge you need to make wise choices.
The key question to ask is this – if you send someone to a site where they pay a monthly or quarterly fee, do you get paid every time or just once?

8. DO THEY SUPPORT YOU?

You should expect the program you join to provide marketing tools as well as some training on how to sell their products.
You should expect reasonable support from an affiliate program, just as you do when you buy a product.
What is reasonable support?

• Providing pre-written ad copy.
• Providing banners and other graphics.
• Providing email “swipes” you can send to your list.

What is unreasonable support?

• Them building an entire funnel for you at no cost.
• Them writing custom ads for you whenever you ask for it.
• Them paying you an above-normal commission before you have actually made any sales.

Most affiliate programs are designed to help you succeed. Use what they offer well and you will be able to ask for more (including higher commissions) and get it.

WHERE TO FIND GOOD AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

There are many ways to find affiliate programs.
One of the best is to think about a product you love and visit their site to look for an affiliate program link.
Another option is to visit affiliate program portals like the following. You will find many products that can earn you commissions ranging from 5% to 100%!

• Clickbank
• PayDotCom
• JVZoo
• ShareASale

Forums are excellent resources to learn what really works because you can often communicate with people promoting a particular product right now.


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3 Fatal Traffic Mistakes To Avoid

Mistake 1: Cherry-Picking Traffic Methods

You’ve probably read many books, blog posts, articles and other materials about getting traffic. Maybe you’ve even started developing a plan for which traffic methods you’re going to use and which ones you’re going to skip.

Hold up there for a second…

If you’re completely skipping a traffic method because you think or even know that it won’t work, then that’s one thing.

For example, trying to generate traffic from some decade-old, untargeted source like a “start page” exchange is pretty fruitless. If you read about this in some old traffic report then yeah… feel free to ignore it.

What I’m talking about are ignoring proven traffic methods that are sure to bring targeted traffic to your site.

For example:

• You don’t feel like building a list or publishing a blog, because you don’t really feel like developing and committing to a publishing schedule.

• You don’t want to get joint venture partners or affiliates, because you’re happier working alone.

• You thumb your nose at social media, even though your target market is definitely on Facebook.

So what if there is a traffic method that you don’t really feel like doing? Then hire someone to do it for you. Because if you want to build a thriving business, don’t skip over a promising traffic method just because you don’t feel like doing it yourself.

Mistake 2: Not Being Consistent

Sometimes people start off really enthusiastic about driving traffic to their site. They start running ads, doing content swaps, blogging, setting up a Facebook page, optimizing their pages for the search engines, setting up an affiliate program… and so on.

This goes on for a few weeks, and the traffic starts coming in at a nice clip. When they see all the targeted traffic filling actually happening, they divert their attention and start working on something else.

This is natural. When you want something so badly and then it happens there is often a letdown.

The big mistake here is thinking the traffic will just keep coming in on its own.

Of course it doesn’t work that way.

• Content swaps lose effectiveness as the content drops off the blogger’s front page.
• Affiliates start to lose interest and go seek out other opportunities.
• Facebook fans and blog readers drift away when they realize there hasn’t been any new content in a while.
• The competitors in the search engines knock your pages out of the top spots.
• And of course paid ads don’t bring in any visitors once you stop the campaigns.

So here’s the point…

If you want to keep the traffic coming (and building over time) you need to do something every day to increase your traffic.

For example, you may do one or more of the following every day:

• Recruit new affiliates or joint venture partners. You might make it a goal to find five new partners before the week is out.

• Send an email to marketing partners. At a minimum, you can send them new tools to help their promotions, such as new ads, blog posts and graphics. If you really want to get them hopping, then send out an announcement about an upcoming affiliate contest.

• Post something on your blog, on someone else’s blog, or on social media. Or do all three. Aim for something that will engage readers and start up a discussion.

• Create a viral video. This could be something funny, super-useful or even controversial. Then post it on social media and see if you get any traction.

• Send an email to your list. Then make it a point to do this regularly, as the only way to build a good relationship with them is by sending your list engaging content on at least a weekly basis. Three times a week is even better.

• Start up a Facebook ad campaign. Just be sure to use the ad platform’s power tool to get your ad in front of as targeted an audience as possible.

Mistake 3: Skipping the Tracking and Testing

Many marketers waste a lot of time and money chasing after advertising strategies that simply don’t work for them. Maybe they’re using ineffective ads or calls to action. Maybe their lead pages are weak. Or maybe they’re even posting ads in places where they’re getting very little action.

Why would someone keep throwing money and time at advertising that doesn’t work?

Simple: They don’t know their advertising is not working because they are not tracking and testing.

So what you need to do is start keeping careful track of what works and what doesn’t. You’ll need a tool to track and statistically test your ads and campaigns.

You can find plenty of tools around, such as Google Analytics, or the open-source alternative at Piwik.com. Check your other tools, which may have built in tracking.

Once you decide what you’re going to test, then be sure to test just one element of your ad campaign at a time. That way, you can be confident that any change in the conversion rate is due to that one element, rather than something else.

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Review for the 5 Step Formula Report

I recently read an amazing free report which gave me a behind-the-scenes look into how millionaire Mark Ling builds his affiliate websites. The report is the 5-Step Formula to Earning $10,000/Month Online. But it is only available for a limited time! Download it while you still can:

==>>  Click here

One of the reasons I trust Mark and bothered to download his book in the first place is that I know he’s one of the good guys. After struggling at two minimum wage jobs, he built his first affiliate website in the 90s. And after his first paycheck, he knew this was it. He kept building more websites, and started earning a six-figure income online.

But one day it all changed. One bad decision led Mark to losing everything he worked for. He went from a six-figure income to a six-figure debt. He took up a job at a call center, thinking that was it. But as he looked around, he knew there had to be a better way — he had to try again. So he picked up affiliate marketing again, and decided to give it one last try. Now he is a seven-figure affiliate marketer who gets to share his methods and techniques with people across the globe.

***Learn the 5 Money-Making Steps Mark Takes for Each Website***

In this free report, Mark Ling visually reveals to you the five steps he takes for each website. They are laid out in an easy-to-understand format. Best of all, these are the actual five steps that Mark follows, so you know that you’re actually getting a behind-the-scenes look into how he builds his money-making websites.

***Learn the 11 Affiliate Marketing Niches You Should Be In***

Mark reveals the 11 niches that he makes the most money off: and these are the 11 niches that he recommends most people get started in. Are you in the right niches? If you aren’t, then it will almost certainly hold you back. And if you haven’t built your first website yet, you can find out what you should be making it about.

***Learn How to Uncover the Best Affiliate Marketing Products to Promote***

In his free report, Mark shows you the exact steps that he uses to find the best products to promote. It is very important you get this right: if you pick the wrong product, one that doesn’t convert, then you could waste thousands of dollars sending traffic to your site and make no sales! If you don’t want to lose money, read this free report and how to pick the right products to sell.

***But That Isn’t Enough: You Need to Watch the Webinar Series***

While the report is great, it isn’t quite enough to get started: there are still some specifics about where to purchase traffic that Mark doesn’t have time to address in his report. But luckily he is right now running a free webinar series. It is strictly for a limited time, so once you get your free report you’ll have an opportunity to sign up. Be sure to do so and find out his secret traffic methods.

***Conclusion: The Report is Fantastic, so Download it While You Still Can***

This report is only available for free for a limited time. It is packed with step-by-step information that shows you how millionaire Mark Ling builds his money-making websites. If you want to be successful like him, then download the report right now, and read it as soon as possible:

==>>  Click here

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